Wonder

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Socrates

All good things begin with a wonder.

It is one of the most important jobs in the world, wondering. You have to be kind of relaxed and open to do it. Every moment is full of possibilities, but often we see only one or two. Fear is a state of heart and mind like blinders on a horse, it keeps you from seeing anything but the one thing just in front of you. Then the only possibility seems to be to go on, or, not. This kind of thinking short circuits your higher mind.

“We are perishing for lack of wonder, not for lack of wonders” -G.K. Chesterton 

There are many cues on offer that tend to drive one into fear every day. The news for example, which is merely an efficiently collected pile of the day’s most shocking things, in which the vast majority of normal goodnesses are ignored and discarded. I’m not saying don’t keep up with your world, just keep your perspective. 

Then there is the actual structure of your media and social communication. If everyone around you is upset, or angry, or stressed out, it is harder to hold in your heart a center of peace and love. We are creatures who are designed by evolution to be attuned to our social environment. And if your main outlet for these cues and your social knowledge is a curated online social media feed microtargeted to you by corporate algorithms, who is choosing for you how you are being pushed to feel? 

Who is in charge? Who is your social influencer? 

There are more than only two choices, to be online, or not. The inter web offers millions of doors you can open. The outer world also.

Wonder can only arise when you get out of fear and remove the blinders. There is always a third way. And a fourth. And a fifth, and so on out to infinity. The constricted mind can’t handle this. In a more authoritarian cultural past, curiosity was considered a sin. Adherence was paramount. Straying meant banishment, isolation from the tribe meant certain doom. Obey, or die! Old cultural habits are deep grooves, like ruts, like the deep lines carved into the now dried muddy road, or into your brain; easy to fall into, easy to get stuck in. A population kept in a constant state of hurry and worry is ripe for authoritarian control.

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.” Gerry Spence

Try it now. Meditate with eyes closed for a short while, until you are relaxed. Breathe, feel your body...

Then maybe open your eyes and walk around, or you can even wander in virtual space. Be curious about something; maybe open one of those other millions of doors on the inter web. Google a phrase from a song you like, a silly question, an imaginary place you would like to see. Find something new. Someplace where you have never wandered. It can be a rich and veritable palace of wonders. 

“Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.”- Kurt Vonnegut 

 

Wonder is a small still voice that whispers. The sound of wonder is a child’s voice. Wonder bubbles up from the quiet moments. Wonder is the original spark of all new ideas that have made your life better. Wonder lifts you out of either/or into what if? The new golden age begins with signs and wonders, pattern breakers that uplift you, rather than cause you to contract in fear.

“Think and wonder, wonder and think.” -Dr. Seuss

I wonder if we can all begin to appreciate more of the wonders all around us.